Lycia
'''Lycia '''is an Old One in a Marilith shell. She is Thrace's ex-wife and an ally of Thracia. She currently resides in the Dalyan Rock Tombs in Dalyan, Turkey. Quick facts Name: Lycia Age: Approximately five billion years old--risen from her dormant, dead state on 12/22/2005. Species: Old One; has a marilith host body. Family: Thrace (former husband), Illyria, Moesia (siblings-in-law, cousins). Role in Thracia: Ally, mostly in the capacity of financial support. Religion: Lycia believes, distantly in an "absorbed it from my insane shell" kind of way, in Glycon. Trivia (interactive) 1. Lycia's parentage is identical, in terms of rank and prestige, to Illyria, Moesia and Thrace's own: a founder from the original Twelve on one side (her mother, Messana), a later generation Old One on the other side (her father, Budalia--the only son of Brauron and Katapola). Illyria's reaction: This actually made Illyria very nervous about Lycia before she got to know her. Anyone close to being her physical equal that she didn't know well did. 2. Lycia met Thrace through joining Illyria's first army. She was a very capable warrior, but she was also (for an Old One) a startlingly gifted healer. Illyria relied on her a great deal to keep their soldiers in one piece in the early conflicts with Illium. As they were her highest-ranked comrades and the ones who were usually at the forefront of any campaign, she probably treated more wounds on Illyria and Thrace than any other individual soldiers she met throughout her entire tour of duty. 3. Lycia never loved her husband, of course, but she liked him very much, and was completely loyal to him throughout the duration of their marriage until her death. She predeceased him by several years--she was killed by Illyria in the first wave of the Purge, whereas Thrace was not killed until the day of the worldfire. 4. Lycia was closer to Moesia than she was to any others of her in-laws. Though she knew that Moesia would be there, anyway, being Thrace's sister, she still personally asked her to attend the small ceremony in which they were married. She also wanted her to be present at each of her children's births. 5. Lycia bore Thrace eight children, predominantly male--this was amusing to both sets of grandparents, as the previous generation in her paternal line had yielded primarily female offspring. Lycia couldn't have cared less. She was too devoted to her offspring to care. 6. Lycia was the picture-perfect definition of a "loving" mother during the Primordial: along with Thrace, she trained her children very harshly, to absolutely ensure their survival. Her main deviation from the norm was that she would have cared, very much, if any of them had died. Her favorite of her children was Ismara. 7. Lycia's favorite possession during the Primordial was her own personal Nightmare that she kept as a pet. It usually manifested as a very large and attractive plant. 8. Besides healing, Lycia's greatest value in war was as a strategist. She was very clever and highly opportunistic, with a talent for turning apparent problems to her advantage. This included adapting existing strategies to new, often disheartening, information. Illyria's reaction: As valuable as her healing was, this was Illyria's favorite trait about Lycia. 9. Lycia was unusually social for an Old One, perhaps due in part to the fact that her parents settled in an area of the continent that was highly populous. It had been one of Illium's main dependencies, which meant that it suffered the most from his poor, absentee leadership miles away. She left the area to join Illyria with a group of nearly two dozen Old Ones--quite a large contingent, for a technically non-militant caravan in that time period. Particularly since none were her biological siblings. Thrace's reaction: Lycia's social nature was part of what attracted Thrace to her. His strategy for survival had always been to ally with powerful groups, and groups are easier to form and maintain when the members are social to some degree. 10. Lycia took a very, very long time to die during her fight with Illyria. It was the first time the two had ever fought against each other. They'd never even sparred before. Thrace's reaction: Thrace has always been proud of this, and told her so the first time they met after the resurrection. Illyria's reaction: While she never thought more about this than with a sense of grudging respect during the Primordial, it is one of her most painful memories now. She was not indifferent to or uninvolved in Thrace's choice of mate; she'd always liked Lycia. 11. Lycia's immediate reaction to being resurrected was sheer panic. She lashed out violently, killing many of her servants (both accidentally and in deliberate defensive maneuvers) and injuring herself. It took quite some time, and about eleven different spells for tranquility, to calm her down and explain what had happened. 12. Lycia's shell was a Turkish marilith named Aşkğn, who was 310 years old at the time of her death. She was an unwilling host that had to be subdued and captured by Lycia's cult. She killed about five of them in the mere attempt. They kept her chained down and sedated during her cargo flight from Asia to the Americas, and then caged until the resurrection. 13. Aşkğn was chosen for Lycia not only because mariliths are extremely physically powerful and, for demons, very attractive, but because, even for a marilith, Aşkğn was enormously wealthy. Due to her hoarding and her habitual killing of other mariliths to take their hoards, Lycia's net worth has been calculated by her Qwa'ha Xahn's accountant to be $6.8 billion U.S dollars in precious minerals, jewelry, antiques, drums of oil, spare change of various currencies and California redemption value of recyclables. 14. Contrary to popular belief, Lycia doesn't live simply as a recluse in the Dalyan rock tombs. She follows Aşkğn's former migratory pattern, which keeps her on the move for a good portion of the year. She spends most of that time finding ways to increase her hoard--mostly oil, as she likes the drums it comes in and because she has found that the liquid fossil remnants inside the drums are very useful for bartering to keep her territory to herself. She also spends a good portion of that time killing whatever trespassers she finds and doing small acts of heroism to get the more superstitious people (mostly demons, but a surprising number of humans as well) to worship her and leave offerings at her various hideaways. 15. Lycia maintains as much contact with Thrace as he'll permit, though at a distance. She misses him and Moesia both, though she very rarely admits to it, particularly since she is self-aware enough to realize that them developing a closer relationship with her would be very physically dangerous for them. Her feelings towards Illyria and especially towards the squidlets are very mixed. Illyria's reaction: Illyria understands this, though she still regrets it. She actually regrets slightly more Lycia's reluctance to be near any of the squidlets. She thinks that some of them hold the potential to be a comfort to Lycia. Moesia's reaction: Whenever she can spare one, Moesia sends a hiveling to Lycia. She's gotten better at telling when Lycia's becoming dangerous, and always has a place for the hiveling to retreat to, but she still knows that any hiveling she sends is going to die. 16. Lycia still thinks of Thrace as being married to her, but doesn't see that as any reason to resume their cohabitative and procreative relationship, and sees nothing wrong with him choosing another wife to actively fulfill the role. She supports his relationship with Iesta, and while she has never sent gifts to any of their children, she has sent them to Iesta after each one was born. Thrace's reaction: In the early days of his and Iesta's relationship, a single word from Lycia would've made him end it. He's gotten attached enough to Iesta that this is no longer the case, but he's still incredibly grateful for her support. 17. Lycia is not fully sane, though she is very lucid. One thing she is thankful for about her shell is that its instincts, memories, etc., don't interfere with her own acquisitive and self-preservation drives. Illyria's reaction: She envies this. Her own acquisitive instincts have continually dwindled towards nonexistence since her rise, and the fact that Lycia has such an important piece of being an Old One left intact is very worthy of jealousy. 18. Lycia wants land more than power. She sees power as a necessary route to maintaining a territory of a massive size to accomodate her new marilith instincts. She doesn't want more power than she needs to protect that interest, and, if ever asked, will readily agree to have her kingdom franchised into a dependency of Thracia. 19. Pursuant to #18, the only stipulations Lycia would make towards becoming a dependency of Thracia would be that if Thrace ever builds strongholds in it, she wants them to be far from her own lairs and named after their dead children. 20. Lycia still has never chosen a formal title. Illyria's reaction: Conceited as she knows it to be, Illyria is unsurprised by this. She never gave Lycia one. Category:Characters Category:Inactive Characters Category:Mariliths Category:Old Ones Category:Asian Characters